Competition is fierce when it comes to organic search engine traffic for car dealerships, especially in large cities such as Los Angeles where you can find many dealers competing for the top spots. Ranking generally depends on a variety of factors including on-page text and off-site linkbuilding. Since Google’s latest Penguin algorithm change, sites will need to focus more on the quality of incoming links instead of quantity. The goal for most dealerships is to convert traffic into sales leads. Let’s take a look at how many dealers are competing for organic search traffic.

Traffic From Brand Names

Car dealers rely a great deal on “brand “ traffic in addition to specific keywords. For example, dealers such as Galpin are well known and may advertise on the radio. Thus, well known auto dealers generally receive quite a bit of traffic for brand related searches. Since Google’s Penguin algorithm update we can expect the search engine to favor big brands more than ever before.

Intense Competition

Competition for organic traffic is especially intense in big cities like Dallas, Los Angeles and New York whereas it’s a lot less competitive in smaller cities and rural towns. Take Los Angeles for example; there are at least over ten Honda dealerships in the city all competing for terms such as “Honda Los Angeles” or “Car Sales Los Angeles” when only one can take the top spot. This means that the focus is generally on building quality inbound links from authority sites. Web design also plays a factor when it comes to ranking; sites generated with html and text tend to rank much better than those with a flash entry page.

Integration With Social Media

In addition to organic traffic, many dealers also rely on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Youtube for marketing purposes. Many will link from their dealer website to their numerous social media accounts. Facebook allows dealers to create their own page which may include photos and status updates which may include local news, information about upcoming sales or even photos of staff. These pages allows businesses to interact with customers and add a face to the brand. Many are also taking advantage of Youtube in order to post their commercial spots or inventory specs. One advantage of Youtube videos is that they can actually receive quite a bit of organic traffic on their own.

Written by Janeen Star